- 05 Oct 2023
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What is an email flow?
- Updated on 05 Oct 2023
- 2 Minutes to read
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In short, a flow is an email to be sent out based on predetermined rules. In this article, we'll briefly explain what a flow is and how flow can help you increase sales and personalize your online store.
Brief introduction
An example of flow can be customers who sign up for newsletters or into the customer club, where they then receive an email with a welcome discount.
Mail flow in action
Below we go through how mail flow can be used to send emails via Personalized Shopping.
Example of how to start a flow
A flow starts when a customer joins a segment, which is defined as them taking an action on your online store or hitting a date. The image below shows that a flow should start when a customer has left items in their cart:
Cancel a flow
Once a flow is started, it's important to make sure to select a criterion to cancel the flow. This is especially important for abandoned shopping carts, so you don't keep nagging a customer who has already placed an order after the first email.
The image above shows where to select the action to cancel the flow - in this example, the "Abandoned cart" flow should be canceled when the customer places an order in the store.
Conditions
When you add a new step to a flow, one of the options is "Condition".
In the example below, we see an abandoned cart flow. The condition set up checks whether the customer has received the forgot cart email in the last 5 days. This is set up to avoid "spamming" customers with unnecessary reminders.
![](http://cdn.document360.io/221f7267-ea72-4f6f-9560-e7f6ca6e46e6/Images/Documentation/image-1694508454018.png?sv=2022-11-02&spr=https&st=2024-09-08T01%3A19%3A01Z&se=2024-09-08T01%3A29%3A01Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=pG7dcV9DSrxnplg2jywcx0ololovgGCwwsTsjpb0vUU%3D)
Waiting steps
A key feature of flow is that you can perform an action, and then wait a set amount of time for the flow to continue. This is done by first clicking on the blue plus icon.
See example of condition and waiting step below.
Flow in order management
If you choose for the flow to start when the customer places a new order, it is most natural to send an order confirmation first. You can then set up a flow that starts when the order is set to shipped, this email contains relevant information about whether the package should be sent or picked up in store / in stock. A few days later, a separate flow can send an email inviting you to review via Lipscore or Trustpilot.
Read more about flow via order management
The sign-up popup is natural to use as a start if you want to thank a customer who signs up for newsletters with a discount code.
Examples of flow
Abandoned cart
Abandoned cart is an email flow that automatically follows up on customers who have added items to their cart without completing their purchase. This flow automatically sends an email to customers who abandon their cart before completing their purchase.
Read more about abandoned cart
Note! This flow requires consent for marketing.
Discount code for signed up newsletter
You can easily send out a discount code to customers who sign up for newsletters. This is done by creating a discount code in the email sent out to customers who sign up for newsletters via a pop-up.
Read more about discount code on popup